ARGENTINE TRANSLATORS: 2022 STATUS

Rosario Traducciones developed the 6th survey on the status of the translation industry in Argentina. Translators and project managers were asked about client scenarios, interests, knowledge, and expectations.

This survey is conducted annually to identify key industry indicators and findings that may help decision-making.

The survey participants live in Argentina, mainly in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santa Fe. They are between 31 and 40 years old (32%), 41 and 50 years old (28%), 21 and 30 years old (21%), 51 and 60 years old (13%), and 61 and 70 years old (6%).

This article summarizes translators’ input.

Translators Profile

The translators who participated in the survey were 88% women and 12% men. Fifty-one per cent give little importance to their professional profile on social media, 33% quite a lot and 7% much importance. In contrast, 9% do not see this communication channel as a relevant space.

As for their professional qualifications, 90% are translators, 2% are linguists, 2% are engineers, and 2% are teachers. On the other hand, 4% have additional unspecified basic training.

Fifty-seven per cent have worked in the translation industry for over ten years, 25% for less than five years and 17% between 5 and 10 years.

Most Frequent Language Pairs and Subjects

Argentine translators' most frequent language pair is English - Spanish (93%). The survey shows that many professionals work with more than one language pair.

The remaining language pairs are listed below:

●        Portuguese – Spanish 7%

●        Italian – Spanish 4%

●        French – Spanish 4%

●        German – Spanish 3%

The top 5 most frequent translated subjects are: medicine (46%), technology (34%), education (34%), legal (28%), marketing (27%).

Other translated subjects are:

●        Technical 27%

●        Software 23%

●        Human Resources 18%

●        Audiovisual 17%

●        Tourism 13%

●        Financial 11%

●        Engineering 10%

●        Entertainment 9%

●        Literature 8%

●        E-commerce 7%

●        Social Science 7%

●        Tools 6%

●        International Relations 4%

The volume of Work and Prospects

As for the volume of daily words translated, Argentine professionals can process:

●        1500 - 2000 words, 21%

●        1000 - 1500 words, 20%

●        2500+ words, 19%

●        2000 - 2500 words, 15%

●        500 - 1000 words, 15%

●        500+ words, 9%

On the other hand, 69% do editing tasks. In this case, the daily volume of work is distributed as follows:

●        Up to 3000 words, 48%

●        3000 - 5000 words, 32%

●        5000 - 8000 words, 15%

●        8000+ words, 5%

On the other hand, 67% have already done post-editing tasks, and their daily volume of work is:

●        Up to 5000 words, 70%

●        5000 - 8000 words, 21%

●        7000 - 10000 words, 8%

●        10000+ words, 1%

Sixty-four per cent of translators who have not yet done this type of task are willing to do it in the future.

The survey also asked participants if they had performed any interpretation tasks. In this case, 29% confirmed having interpreted, and 26% of translators who have not provided interpretation services are considering it since new technologies give them the possibility of doing so remotely.

Based on their client portfolio, the work increased for 60% of translators over the last three years, remained the same for 32%, and dropped by 8%.

Regarding expectations for the next three years, work will increase for 63% of translators, remain the same for 31%, and drop by 6%.

Technology Impact on the Industry

For Argentine translators, the impact of technology on the industry is related to:

●        Enabling the use of tools, 61%

●        Improving MT quality, 61%

●        Making tools more efficient, 57%

●        Developing more robust tools, 31%

●        Improving knowledge management, 30%

●        Increasing reuse, 27%

●        Facilitating integration, 24%

●        Improving customer support, 21%

●        Improving the cost of acquisitions (licenses, maintenance, training, etc.) by 20%

●        Offering tools in more languages, 12%

Tools and Training

The translation and editing tools most frequently used are:

●        Trados Studio, 88%

●        MemoQ, 65%

●        Xbench, 65%

●        Memsource, 49%

●        Wordfast, 38%

●        XTRF, 7%

●        MateCat, 7%

The translation and editing tools most preferred by translators are:

●        Trados Studio, 78%

●        Xbench, 52%

●        MemoQ, 42%

●        Memsource, 33%

●        Wordfast, 17%

●        MateCat, 4%

●        XTRF, 3%

The translation and editing tools they would like to receive more training on are:

●        Wordfast, 37%

●        MemoQ, 33%

●        Memsource, 29%

●        Catalyst, 27%

●        XTRF, 25%

●        MateCat, 20%

●        Trados Studio, 18%

●        Lilt, 17%

●        Xbench, 16%

The subjects they would like to receive training in are:

●        Quality assurance, 49%

●        Translation tools, 47%

●        Spanish language normative, 40%

●        Machine translation/publishing, 38%

●        Audiovisual translation, 32%

●        Marketing for translators, 27%

●        Project management, 27%

●        Transcreation, 26%

●        Financial self-management, 25%

●        Time management, 17%

Client Portfolio

65% of survey participants work with local companies or agencies; 49% work with overseas agencies; 28% have local end clients; and 24% work with overseas end clients. The data shows that a portion of translators works for both local and foreign clients.

Translators were also asked what they value the most when working for a translation agency or company. What matters most to translators is the rate (4), followed by timely payments (3) and long-term work (3) and, lastly, the volume of work (2.7) and deadline flexibility (2.2), respectively. Participants could rate each from 1 to 5, 5 being the highest score.

Other considerations include having a good relationship with project managers (3.9), ongoing communication (3.6), receiving feedback on completed work (2.7), teamwork (2.5) and knowing the company and the project manager with whom they are working (2.3).

Also included was the possibility of performing a test translation of up to 300 words before starting a job, to which 84% responded that they would be willing to do so. 

As for the payment method, 94% receive wire transfers, 39% collect via PayPal, 24% in cash and 2% by check.

Regarding the type of work, 90% work as freelancers, 3% as employees and 7% under both contract types.

To conclude the survey, participants were asked whether they belonged to a professional association. 50% are professional association members, and 50% are not. 



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For some questions, participants were able to make several choices, so the total percentage might be over 100.